Attacks in Benin: the French army announces that it has killed 40 jihadists in Burkina Faso

The badges of the tunics of the French soldiers of Operation Barkhane.

© Jerome Delay/AP

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

The French general staff announced this Saturday, February 12 the death of 40 jihadists in airstrikes carried out by the Barkhane force in Burkina Faso.

According to the French army, these jihadists were involved in the attacks in northern Benin which killed nine people, including a former French soldier.

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They had been on the trail of this jihadist group since Tuesday February 8 to find it in the vastness of the W natural park located between Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin.

Barkhane had sent an intelligence aircraft, capable of picking up all radio exchanges.

This ISR means made it possible Thursday, February 10 to identify the jihadist column traveling on motorcycles.

Coming from Benin, she had already passed through the territory of Burkina Faso.

In the morning, a first air strike knocked out about ten men.

A Mirage 2000 patrol then carried out three more strikes.

More than thirty terrorists were neutralized, indicates the staff of the armies in its press release, specifying that a pick-up and a dozen motorcycles were also destroyed.

Fear of an expansion of jihadism in the Gulf of Guinea

The coordinated attacks carried out on

 confirm the fears of seeing terrorism progress towards the coast.

If France could well announce in the coming days the withdrawal of its troops from Mali, the priority of Paris remains to " 

", reminded insistently the head of General Staff, Thierry Burckard, Tuesday, during a visit to Côte d'Ivoire.

► To read also: Attack in the far north of Benin: "This incident is not an isolated incident"

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• Burkina Faso

• Benign

• Defense

• France

• Terrorism